This article describes how to setup a NetScaler to capture circular network traces.

Objective

This article describes how to setup a NetScaler to capture circular network traces. This is useful when you cannot duplicate the issue on demand and instead have to wait for it to occur. This example explains how to capture 150 seconds of network traces split into 5 different files of 30 seconds each.

Capture Circular Traces Using NetScaler CLI

Connect to the NetScaler through SSH using PuTTY (or any other SSH tool).

On the NetScaler CLI run the following command to start the trace:start nstrace -size 0 -nf 5 -time 30

Stop the traces using the following command:stop nstrace

A directory will be generated in the /var/nstrace/ with the timestamp (i.e. 06Jan2016_16_55_46) at which the capture started. Use WinSCP, FileZilla, or any other tool that allows SCP (secure copy), and navigate to /var/nstrace/06Jan2016_16_55_46/ and download all the files to your local computer. You can either drag-and-drop the files or right-click on them and select Download (F5).